Editing Thomas Gainsborough (section)

==Career==
===Suffolk===
In 1746, Gainsborough married Margaret Burr, an illegitimate daughter of the [[Henry Scudamore, 3rd Duke of Beaufort|Duke of Beaufort]], who had settled a £200 annuity on her. The artist's work, then mostly consisting of landscape paintings, was not selling well. He returned to Sudbury in 1748–1749 and concentrated on painting portraits.<ref name="MMA">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FZzL3ey6gDYC&pg=PA92 |page=92 |title=British Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575-1875 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |location=New York, N.Y. |author=Katharine Baetjer |year=2009|isbn=9781588393487 }}</ref> 
While still in Suffolk, Gainsborough painted a portrait of ''The Rev. John Chafy Playing the Violoncello in a Landscape'' (c. 1750–1752; Tate Gallery, London).<ref>[https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gainsborough-the-rev-john-chafy-playing-the-violoncello-in-a-landscape-t03895 Tate Gallery website]. Retrieved 3 November 2021.</ref>

In 1752, he and his family, now including two daughters, [[Mary Gainsborough|Mary]] ("Molly", 1750–1826) and Margaret ("Peggy", 1751–1820),<ref name="JH2017">{{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=James |author-link= |date=2017-07-13|title=Gainsborough: A Portrait |url= |location= |publisher=W&N |page= |isbn=978-1474600521}}</ref> moved to Ipswich. Commissions for portraits increased, but his clients included mainly local merchants and squires. He had to borrow against his wife's annuity.<ref name="MMA"/> Toward the end of his time in Ipswich, he painted a self-portrait,<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/content/articles/2009/04/02/gainsborough_self_portrait_feature.shtml |title=The boy is back in town |work=BBC Suffolk}}</ref> now in the permanent collection of the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02381/Thomas-Gainsborough |title=Thomas Gainsborough |work=National Portrait Gallery}}</ref>
<gallery widths="160px" heights="160px" perrow="3" caption="The artist's family and self-portrait">
File:Margaret Burr (1728-1797), Mrs Thomas Gainsborough by Thomas Gainsborough.jpg|''Margaret Burr'' (1728–1797), the artist's wife, {{circa}} early 1770s
File:Thomas Gainsborough 024.jpg|''Self-Portrait'' (1754)
File:Thomas Gainsborough 017.jpg|''The Artist's Daughters'' ({{circa|1759|lk=no}})
</gallery>

===Bath===
[[File:Portrait of Ann Ford (Gainsborough).jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Portrait of Ann Ford]]'', 1760, [[Cincinnati Art Museum]]]]
[[File:The Blue Boy.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[The Blue Boy]]'' (1770). [[Huntington Library]], San Marino, California]]
In 1759, Gainsborough and his family moved to [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], living at number 17 [[The Circus, Bath|The Circus]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Greenwood|first=Charles|title=Famous houses of the West Country|year=1977|publisher=Kingsmead Press|location=Bath|isbn=978-0-901571-87-8|pages=84–86}}</ref> There, he studied portraits by [[Anthony van Dyck|van Dyck]] and was eventually able to attract a fashionable clientele. Beginning with the [[Exhibition of 1761]] he sent work to the annual exhibition of the [[Society of Artists of Great Britain]] (of which he was one of the earliest members) at [[Spring Gardens]] in London. From 1769 he submitted works to the [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy]]'s [[Summer Exhibition|annual exhibitions]]. The exhibitions helped him enhance his reputation, and he was invited to become a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1769. His relationship with the academy was not an easy one and he stopped exhibiting his paintings in 1773.

Despite Gainsborough's increasing popularity and success in painting portraits for fashionable society, he expressed frustration during his Bath period at the demands of such work and that it prevented him from pursuing his preferred artistic interests. In a letter to a friend in the 1760s Gainsborough wrote: "I'm sick of Portraits and wish very much to take my [[Viol|Viol da Gamba]] and walk off to some sweet Village where I can paint Landskips [landscapes] and enjoy the fag End of Life in quietness and ease".<ref>Letter to William Jackson, from Bath, dated 4 June (but without the year), in M. Woodall (ed.), ''The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough'' (London, 1961), p. 115.</ref>  Of the men he had to deal with as patrons and admirers, and their pretensions, he wrote:<blockquote>... damn Gentlemen, there is not such a set of Enemies to a real artist in the world as they are, if not kept at a proper distance.  They think ... that they reward your merit by their Company & notice; but I ... know that they have but one part worth looking at, and that is their Purse; their Hearts are seldom near enough the right place to get a sight of it.<ref>Letter to William Jackson, from Bath, dated 2 September 1767, in M. Woodall (ed.), ''The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough'' (London, 1961), p. 101.</ref></blockquote>Gainsborough was so keen a viol da gamba player that he had at this stage five of the instruments, three made by Henry Jaye and two by [[Barak Norman]].<ref>Letter to William Jackson, from Bath, dated 4 June (but without the year), in M. Woodall (ed.), ''The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough'' (London, 1961), p. 115: "My comfort is, I have 5 Viols da Gamba, 3 Jayes and two Barak Normans."</ref>

===London===
[[File:Thomas Gainsborough, Frances Browne, Mrs John Douglas (1746 - 1811), 1783-84 at Waddesdon Manor.jpg|thumb|upright|''Frances Browne, Mrs John Douglas (1746–1811)'', 1783–84, [[Waddesdon Manor]]]]
In 1774, Gainsborough and his family moved to London to live in [[Schomberg House]], Pall Mall.<ref name="NGA" /><ref>{{openplaque|2}}</ref> A commemorative [[blue plaque]] was put on the house in 1951.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://openplaques.org/plaques/2 | title=Thomas Gainsborough Blue Plaque | publisher=openplaques.org | access-date=13 May 2013 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723162818/http://openplaques.org/plaques/2 | archive-date=23 July 2012 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> In 1777, he again began to exhibit his paintings at the Royal Academy, including portraits of contemporary celebrities, such as the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland. Exhibitions of his work continued for the next six years. About this time, Gainsborough began experimenting with [[printmaking]] using the then-novel techniques of [[aquatint]] and [[soft-ground etching]].<ref name="Rosenthal_Oxford">Rosenthal, Michael. "Gainsborough, Thomas". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University Press. Web.</ref>
[[File:Thomas Gainsborough (English - Portrait of Anne, Countess of Chesterfield - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Portrait of Anne, Countess of Chesterfield]]'' (1777–78), [[J. Paul Getty Museum]]. His later pictures are characterised by a light palette and easy strokes.]]

During the 1770s and 1780s Gainsborough developed a type of portrait in which he integrated the sitter into the landscape. An example of this is his portrait of Frances Browne, Mrs John Douglas (1746–1811) which can be seen at [[Waddesdon Manor]]. The sitter has withdrawn to a secluded and overgrown corner of a garden to read a letter, her pose recalling the traditional representation of Melancholy. Gainsborough emphasised the relationship between Mrs Douglas and her environment by painting the clouds behind her and the drapery billowing across her lap with similar silvery violet tones and fluid brushstrokes. This portrait was included in his first private exhibition at Schomberg House in 1784.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://collection.waddesdon.org.uk/search.do?view=detail&page=1&id=41329&db=object&_ga=1.214042711.1325358531.1459762060|title=Search Results|website=collection.waddesdon.org.uk|language=en|access-date=12 April 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170412224652/http://collection.waddesdon.org.uk/search.do?view=detail&page=1&id=41329&db=object&_ga=1.214042711.1325358531.1459762060|archive-date=12 April 2017}}</ref>

In 1776, Gainsborough painted a portrait of [[Johann Christian Bach]],<ref name="JCBach">{{cite web |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw07058/Johann-Christian-Bach |work=[[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]] |title=Johann Christian Bach |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref> the youngest son of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]].<ref name="Burnett">{{cite book |last=Bagnoli |first=Giorgio |title=The La Scala Encyclopedia of the Opera |year=1993 |isbn=9780671870423 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FUJ0bvo6rQIC&pg=PA38}}</ref> Bach's former teacher [[Padre Martini]] of Bologna, Italy, was assembling a collection of portraits of musicians, and Bach asked Gainsborough to paint his portrait as part of this collection.<ref name="JCBach"/> The portrait now hangs in the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]] in London.<ref name="JCBach"/>

In 1780, he painted the portraits of King [[George III]] and [[Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz|Queen Charlotte]] and afterwards received other royal commissions.  In February 1780, his daughter Molly was married to his musician friend [[Johann Christian Fischer]], to Gainsborough's dismay, as he realized that Fischer was forming an attachment to Molly while carrying on flirtation with Peggy.<ref name="JH2017"/> The marriage between Molly and Fischer lasted only eight months, owing to their discord and Fischer's deceit.<ref name="JH2017"/>

In 1784, Principal Painter in Ordinary [[Allan Ramsay (artist)|Allan Ramsay]] died and the King was obliged to give the job to Gainsborough's rival and Academy president, [[Joshua Reynolds]]. Gainsborough remained the royal family's favourite painter, however.

In his later years, Gainsborough often painted landscapes. With [[Richard Wilson (painter)|Richard Wilson]], he was one of the originators of the eighteenth-century British landscape school; though simultaneously, in conjunction with Reynolds, he was the dominant British portraitist of the second half of the 18th century.

William Jackson in his contemporary essays said of him "to his intimate friends he was sincere and honest and that his heart was always alive to every feeling of honour and generosity".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Four Ages including essays on various subjects |last=Jackson |first=William |publisher=Cadell & Davies |year=1798 |url=https://archive.org/stream/fouragestogethe00jackgoog#page/n175/mode/2up |page=161 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410211916/https://archive.org/stream/fouragestogethe00jackgoog#page/n175/mode/2up |archive-date=10 April 2016  }}</ref> Gainsborough did not particularly enjoy reading but letters written to his friends were penned in such an exceptional conversational manner that the style could not be equalled.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Four Ages including essays on various subjects |last=Jackson |first=William |publisher=Cadell & Davies |year=1798 |url=https://archive.org/stream/fouragestogethe00jackgoog#page/n175/mode/2up |page=183 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410211916/https://archive.org/stream/fouragestogethe00jackgoog#page/n175/mode/2up |archive-date=10 April 2016  }}</ref> As a letter writer [[Sir Henry Dudley, 1st Baronet|Henry Bate-Dudley]] said of him "a selection of his letters would offer the world as much originality and beauty as is ever traced in his paintings".<ref>Woodall, Mary, Introduction to ''The Letters of Thomas Gainborough'', Cupid Press, London, 1963</ref>

In the 1780s, Gainsborough used a device he called a "Showbox" to compose landscapes and display them backlit on glass. The original box is on display in the [[Victoria and Albert Museum|Victoria & Albert Museum]] with a reproduction transparency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/gainsboroughs_showbox/|title=Gainsborough's Showbox|website=www.vam.ac.uk|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110802172921/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/gainsboroughs_showbox/|archive-date=2 August 2011|date=2011-07-12}}</ref>

He died of cancer on 2 August 1788 at the age of 61. According to his daughter Peggy, his last words were "[[van Dyck]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0902rn5|title=Episode 5, Gainsborough, Book of the Week - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC|access-date=30 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814223911/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0902rn5|archive-date=14 August 2017}}</ref> He is interred in the churchyard [[St Anne's Church, Kew]], Surrey, (located on Kew Green). It was his express wish to be buried near his friend [[Joshua Kirby]]. Later his wife and nephew [[Gainsborough Dupont]] were interred with him. Coincidentally [[Johan Zoffany]] and [[Franz Bauer]] are also buried in the graveyard. In 2011, an appeal was given to pay the costs of restoration of his tomb, and the tomb was restored in 2012.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/yoursay/yournews/richmond/8894394.Restoration_of_Thomas_Gainsborough_s_tomb/|title=Restoration of Thomas Gainsborough's tomb|date=7 March 2011|access-date=1 December 2011|work=Richmond Guardian|location=London|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118174242/http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/yoursay/yournews/richmond/8894394.Restoration_of_Thomas_Gainsborough_s_tomb/|archive-date=18 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=The Restoration of the Tomb of Sir Thomas Gainsborough |url=http://www.minervaconservation.com/monuments/gainsborough |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=Minerva Conservation}}</ref> A street in Kew, Gainsborough Road, is named after him.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dunbar | first=Janet | title=A Prospect of Richmond | publisher=George Harrap | edition= 1977 | pages=199–209 }}</ref>